


We're Gonna Live, We're Gonna Live, We're Gonna Live (Like the Rest)

by insatiablycurious



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-21 15:01:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2472476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insatiablycurious/pseuds/insatiablycurious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four times Laura Hollis and Danny Lawrences's perfect dates are ruined and the one time they realize not everything needs to be perfect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was originally going to be a oneshot but then I got carried away. So now the 5 parts are going to be chapters. I just love them so much okay.

Laura Hollis was not nervous.

It was perfectly normal to change outfits a dozen times in a 15 minute span, thank you very much. It was also totally fine to pace the length of your dorm room before you went somewhere, it was good exercise. And so what if she spent an absurd amount of time brushing her teeth, dental hygiene was important.

(Carmilla’s shoulders shake behind the book she’s _obviously not_ reading and she mutters something under her breath that most definitely contains the words “neurotic” and “ginger amazon.” Whatever that means.)

Laura double checks- okay, quadruple checks, her makeup and grabs her dorm keys.

“Have fun!” Carmilla calls out in a sing-song tone before laughing that annoying breathy laugh of hers.

(She may not hate her broody vampire roommate anymore, in fact they were actually sort of friends, but in that moment she wanted nothing more than to yank the book out of Carmilla’s hands and beat her with it.)

Yeah, okay.

She was totally nervous.

In her defense, this was Danny Lawrence. This was a coffee date with Danny Lawrence. This was a coffee date with Danny Lawrence by the lake. Tall, athletic, smart, funny, sweet, six-foot two Danny Lawrence. Danny Lawrence with her gorgeous red hair and her sky blue eyes and her really, _really_ nice hands.

(“Will you stop panicking, she’s totally into you. Now hand me that control sample…” LaFontaine had reassured her last night while they worked on one of her crazy Bio projects.)

Before she knows it, she’s through the quad and the park and at the edge of the lake. There’s nobody around on this side of the water and she’s glad she and Danny will be able to talk without being interrupted.

Then she spots Danny.

(It’s unfair, really, that one person could possess all of these attractive qualities. She imagines that Danny is the universe’s way of saying “sorry that your life sucks sometimes, Hollis.”)

She’s striding towards her, gleaming red hair blowing in the light breeze, aviators perched on the bridge of her nose, and a cup of coffee in each hand. Laura has to remind herself to breathe.

“Hey there!” Danny exclaims, handing Laura one of the coffee cups, “I remembered you saying vanilla was your favorite.”

(For some reason, Laura hears the opening chords of “And I Love Her” playing in her head.)

“Yeah, that’s- yeah.” She manages to choke out. Danny grins and takes a sip of her own coffee.

“What kind did you get?” Laura asks, recovering her ability to speak properly.

“Hazelnut.” Danny replies, reaching up to run a hand through her hair. She slowly removes her sunglasses and clips them to the front of her plaid button down. “You wanna sit down?”

“Of course!” Laura replies as the two make their way to the edge of the lake. After several minutes of small talk, Danny goes quiet, staring out across the lake at the water.

“Isn’t it neat how the sun makes the water sparkle like that? It’s almost like having stars in the daytime.” Danny says, not taking her eyes off the water.

(Laura thinks it’s neat how the sun makes Danny’s blue eyes sparkle like stars in the daytime.)

“Yeah, absolutely.” She whispers. Danny looks over at her and Laura immediately looks down, fidgeting with the cardboard sleeve on her cup and desperately trying to ignore the burning sensation across her cheeks.

She feels Danny’s hand on her wrist so she looks up. Danny’s face is much closer than she remembers it being and suddenly every bit of skin on her body is warm, warm, warm. Danny’s impossibly blue eyes flick down to her lips and they’re getting closer to each other.

Two things happen at once.

(Neither of them involves Danny’s mouth on hers.)

One, a group of scrawny boys wearing capes goes bolting across the other side of the lake, shouting unintelligibly.

Two, a loud inhuman growl and a rustling noise sounds from somewhere close by.

“What the f-“ Danny starts to exclaim, pulling away and glancing toward the tree line. Suddenly, Laura feels Danny’s grip tighten on her wrist and she’s yanked into the taller girl’s chest. Before she can appreciate Danny’s forwardness, she hears the growl again, this time closer.

She turns in Danny’s arms and sees a towering…something emerging from the edge of the forest. She and Danny scramble to their feet in tandem, Danny’s coffee cup toppling over and into the lake.

The thing is at least 7 feet tall and appears to be entirely made out of Nickelodeon-style slime. There’s a large opening that resembles a mouth and two smaller openings on the side of its head that could be ears. Before she can stop herself, Laura yelps loudly. Instantly, the creature turns its head in her direction and begins lumbering towards them.

(‘Don’t panic’ is the only rational thought in her mind.)

“I’ll distract it, you see if you can find something to kn-“ Danny begins to instruct her but before she can finish her sentence, Laura chunks her hot coffee at the creature’s face.

(She panicked.)

“-or that.” Danny finishes as the monster shakes its head and growls louder. It picks up its pace and Danny begins frantically looking around them for something she can use as a weapon.

Right as the Creature from the Slime Lagoon gets within striking distance, Laura dives sideways and Danny lunges to grab a branch, breaking it off from the tree with a loud snap that causes the thing to pause.

“It’s attracted to sound! It’s attracted to sound because it has no eyes!” Laura whispers. The creature turns its head back in her direction, momentarily torn between which sound poses the most threat. Danny whistles sharply and the creature groans, whipping back around in Danny’s direction. Danny raises the broken tree branch like a baseball bat.

(Laura is briefly distracted by how ripped Danny’s biceps are. You can’t blame her for that one. I mean, _really_.)

The creature makes up its mind and lurches towards Laura’s Not Girlfriend. Danny waits until the creature is within reach and then rears back and swings with absolute precision, striking the creature right in the head.

(In retrospect, maybe swinging a tree branch at a creature made of slime probably wasn’t the best idea.)

Danny’s makeshift bat immediately sticks to the side of the creature’s head, causing Danny to lose all of her momentum and sending her crashing to the ground. The creature roars loudly and lunges at Danny’s vulnerable body.

Now panicking completely, Laura leaps to her feet with a yell. The slime monster pauses briefly, it’s misshapen arm hanging just above Danny’s chest, and turns towards Laura as she rushes at it. Without pausing to think about it, Laura slams her body full force into the creature sending them both toppling to the ground.

(Neither was that.)

“LAURA!” Danny yells, grabbing the now freed tree branch and quickly stabbing the monster’s arm, pinning it to the ground.

Laura rolls away from the slime creature as fast as she can, now completely covered in green ooze. She groans noisily and sits up. Danny is still frozen in place, her body turned towards the creature but her head facing Laura as if her need to check on Laura is fighting with her need to make sure the creature stays down.

Suddenly, a large group of people shouting at each other appears. The boys in the capes and a group of girls Laura recognizes as Danny’s fellow Summer Society girls all rush towards them.

“Look at what you morons did!” One girl yells, reaching out to smack the closest boy she can reach on the back of the head.

“Oh, keep your noses out of our business!” A short boy with glasses yells back.

“Your business was just running AMUCK all over campus!” Another girl shouts, pointing at the pinned slime monster.

“Will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?” Danny commands, placing her hands on her hips and fixing everyone but Laura with a glare.

“These Alchemy Club _geniuses_ decided it would be a good idea to combine muck from the lake with nuclear waste and look at what happened!” The girl who had smacked one of the boys explains.

“NUCLEAR WASTE!” Laura shouts, leaping to her feet, “Oh my god am I going to die?”

“No! No no no!” A scrawny dark haired boy quickly interrupts. “We deactivated the radioactivity. The lake mucus cancels out any harmful effects.”

“Any harmful- WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT THING!?” Danny explodes, gesturing erratically at the still moaning creature. “That THING attacked us! It could have seriously injured my g- it could have hurt Laura.”

Danny’s ears turn as red as her hair as every single member of the Summer Society’s heads snap in her and Laura’s direction.

(‘ _And if you saw my love, you’d love her too’_ the music in Laura’s brain swells up again.)

“Look,” one boy starts, only to cower back a few steps as Danny glares at him, “look, we’ll take care of it okay?”

“Fine.” Danny spits, she turns to the nearest girl. “Make sure that they do, I’ve got to get Laura back.”

They walk back to the Summer Society house in silence, Danny still fuming, Laura still burning with embarrassment.

(“LaFontaine will want to run tests on me, Perry will mom out and I don’t even want to think about what Carmilla will say.” Laura had protested when Danny suggested she walk her back to her dorm. Without a word, Danny had changed direction towards the house.)

Danny leads her up a seemingly never-ending spiral staircase until they reach a room at the very top of the house. Danny hesitates at the door before unlocking it and pushing it open.

“The shower is through that door.” She gestures towards a door to the left. “There are towels and washcloths in the closet, and you can use whatever you need that I have.”

(It takes every ounce of willpower Laura has not to blurt out “Can I have you?”)

“I’m gonna go back down to the lake and see if there’s anything I can…I don’t know, do? I guess. But I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Danny says, and it’s obvious she’s beyond nervous.

Careful not to touch anything, she makes her way over to Danny’s bathroom. With one last look at the other girl, who’s got her hand tangled in her hair and is watching her cautiously, Laura closes the bathroom door.

She showers quickly, rinsing out her shirt and jeans and hanging them on the shower door. Hopefully they can dry out before Danny gets back. But as she wraps herself in a towel and pads back out into Danny’s bedroom, she realizes that’s not going to be an issue.

Lying on the middle of Danny’s comfortable looking bed is a faded grey sweatshirt with the logo of some hockey team on the front and a pair of yoga pants that Laura suspects are shorts on Danny’s tall frame. She quickly changes into Danny’s clothes and sits down at her desk chair.

Finally able to get a look around Danny’s bedroom, the first thing she notices is that practically nothing matches. Her pillowcases are all different colors with different patterns, her sheets are grey and her comforter is dark blue.

The second thing she notices is the large bookshelf on the opposite side of the room that’s filled to the brim with not just the usual textbooks and novels, but all kinds of comic books as well.

(Which makes sense, seeing as how Danny is basically the ginger version of Wonder Woman.)

The door slowly opens and Danny steps in, hair still gloriously disheveled but looking significantly calmer than before. Laura stands up.

“They got it under control. No more non-radioactive swamp creatures.” She says, before pausing. “At least for now.” She amends.

“That’s good!” Laura replies. Danny nods her head vigorously before smiling at her.

“You feeling okay, Supergirl?” She asks. Laura laughs.

“Significantly better now that I don’t look like I’ve stepped off the set of Figure It Out.”

Danny laughs and walks over to where Laura is standing. A few moments of comfortable silence passes between the two before they both try to speak at the same time.

“Thanks for the-“

“Sorry about our-“

They both laugh.

“Sorry, no. You go first.” Danny says.

“Thanks for the clothes.” Laura says, blushing furiously at the beaming smile she gets in return.

“Ah, no. It’s not a big deal. I figured you wouldn’t want to wander around in a towel for a few hours.”

(Danny’s ears are bright red again.)

“Yeah, not high on my list of things to do. At least not today.”

(Laura’s cheeks are the same color as Danny’s ears.)

“I should probably go.” Laura says, gesturing towards the alarm clock on Danny’s desk. “I have a mountain of homework and you have that study session you have to teach tonight.”

“Oh. Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.” Danny trails off, obviously disappointed.

The two walk to the door and Danny opens it for Laura. She steps out into the landing and turns back to face Danny as the other girl begins speaking.

“I’m sorry about today. I kinda wanted things to be more…perfect.” Danny says, leaning against the door frame.

“It’s okay. It was nice.” Laura replies. Danny laughs. “It was. It was nice just to be around you.” Laura admits. Danny stops laughing.

“Yeah, it was nice being around you too.” She says, reaching for the drawstrings on the sweatshirt Laura is wearing. She starts fidgeting with the strings, tugging them so that they’re even.

(Laura forgets to breathe.)

“We’ll do it again sometime?” Laura half says half asks. Danny smiles.

“Absolutely.” Danny’s hands drop and Laura reluctantly backs away. She stops at the top of the steps and turns back to Danny.

“I’ll bring you your clothes back tomorrow.” Laura calls.

“Nah. You should keep them. They look better on you anyway.” Danny replies and then closes the door with a wink.

(‘ _Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky. I know this love of mine will never die. And I love her._ ’ The music is back and louder than ever.)


	2. II.

“Okay, but does the blue one look better or the yellow?” Laura asks. LaFontaine tilts their head to the side as Laura held up the two sweaters to her torso.

“Hmm. The yellow one is really bright and the blue one is really dark. People associate bright colors with cute and dark colors with sexy so…I guess it depends on whether you’re going for cute or sexy?”

“I don’t know! I mean, I just want to look nice. This is kind of our first real date since the coffee fiasco.” Laura replies, lowering the sweaters and staring at them both.

“L, I really don’t think it matters what you wear. Danny’s going to think you look nice even if you wear a potato sack.” LaFontaine replies as Laura attempted to cover her blush. Carmilla makes a gagging noise that she barely transforms into a cough behind the cover of the book she’s pretending to read.

(“It’s better than making eye contact with people I don’t care about.” Carmilla had replied nonchalantly after Laura asked her why she was constantly pretending to read when everyone in the room _knew_ she was eavesdropping.)

Laura rounds on her.

“What about you? Which do you think?” Laura asks, raising a challenging eyebrow. Carmilla lowers her book with an eyeroll so obnoxious that Laura swears she can actually _hear_   the other girl’s eyeballs moving.

“I’m with LaBrain on this one. It doesn’t matter what you wear, Tall, Ginger, and Annoying is going to think you look great.” She pauses before muttering, “And you will.”

Laura just wiggles the sweaters in response and Carmilla groans and glares at the ceiling for a few seconds.

“Fine. The yellow one.” She replies.

Laura beams before throwing the yellow sweater at Carmilla and whacking her right in the face. She practically prances to the bathroom with the blue sweater over her shoulder. Carmilla slowly reaches up and drags the sweater off of her head.

(If looks could kill, LaFontaine is pretty sure they’d be beyond dead right now.)

A few seconds later, Laura emerges dressed in the blue sweater and ignoring the dagger-filled glare Carmilla shoots her from over the top of her novel. LaFontaine whistles.

“Lookin’ good there, L.” They say as Laura spins in place, showing off her outfit.

“Well, as fun as thing bonding thing has been, I have places to be.” Carmilla interrupts, tossing Laura’s yellow sweater back at her.

“Gonna scare some trick or treaters?” Laura asked, barely containing her laugh. Carmilla groans.

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.” She pauses at the door. “Have fun subjecting yourself to wildly inaccurate horror films with the amazon.”

“I will, thanks.” Laura snarks back. Carmilla pulls a face at her and opens the door only to reveal Danny with her hand raised in a knocking position.

“Oh. It’s you.” Carmilla spits, shoving past Danny and into the hall. Danny pauses in the doorway.

“Nice to see you too, Cruella.” Danny calls after her; LaFontaine loses it and dissolves into giggles.

“Okay, I need to go make sure Lola doesn’t terrorize anyone about the dangers of over-consuming sugar again.” They say, grinning at Laura and slipping past Danny on their way out. Danny watches them shut the door before turning back to Laura.

“Hey.” She says softly.

(Laura notices Danny’s eyes tracing her up and down.)

“Hey.” Laura replies, smiling gently. Danny takes a step closer.

“You look great.” She says, gesturing at Laura’s figure.

“Thanks, so do you.” Laura says, blushing furiously.

(Danny’s wearing this black button down that fits her perfectly and these dark skinny jeans with her trademark chuck taylors and Laura is having trouble focusing on anything else in the room.)

“We should probably get going, the Dionysus Club is pretty punctual with their film showings.” Danny says, gesturing towards the door.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Laura replies, following Danny to her door and then out into the hallway. She quickly turns to lock the door behind her and as she’s jamming her key into her pocket she feels Danny’s hand slide into her free one, lacing their fingers together.

(Laura feels as if her heart is going to beat itself out of her ribcage.)

Danny’s hand is warm. There are a few rough calluses from countless hours of javelin practice and other crazy Summer Society activities, but the rest of her hand is smooth. Her fingers are longer than Laura’s but her grip isn’t awkward, it’s perfect.

(Danny’s ears are redder than Laura has ever seen them.)

They hold hands the entire walk to the outdoor amphitheatre, and Danny only lets go so they can sit down on one of the benches. But as soon as they’re sitting, Danny puts her arm around Laura’s shoulders.

(If she thought her heart was beating hard before…)

Danny was right about the Dionysus Club being punctual because at exactly 10pm the movie begins to play on the projector screen at the center of the stage. Danny squeezes her shoulder briefly and Laura smiles to herself. She leans into the other girl a bit more and Danny props her chin against the top of Laura’s head.

Soon, they’re about halfway in to the original Frankenstein and Laura is trying really hard to focus on the movie but Danny’s been running her fingers up and down her arm for the last 15 minutes. Every inch of her brain is screaming at her to tilt her head up and just plant one on Danny’s lips, but it’s like her muscles are locked up.

In fact, it feels like her entire body is trembling.

(On second thought, maybe that one isn’t her.)

Suddenly, everyone around them is sitting up and looking around in panic. The ground gives another huge shudder and she and Danny both jump to their feet. Danny’s arm tightens around Laura’s shoulders and Laura grabs at the front of Danny’s shirt.

“What the hell?” She asks as Danny looks around wildly.

“Normally, I would say it’s just an earthquake but…this is Silas.” Danny replies, still scanning the area around them.

All of a sudden, a group of girls nearby starts screaming and running towards them. They seem absolutely panicked about something. Something more serious than just an earthquake.

“What the?” Danny mumbles as another large group of students lurches after the first group.

The earth rumbles beneath them again and Laura almost loses her balance, but Danny just tugs her closer to her body and continues watching the group of oddly moving students.

“Laura, do those guys look a little…”

“…off?” Laura finishes for her, squinting at the group.

The group lurches closer and it looks like they are all either limping or dragging a limb. One of the ‘students’ steps into the glow of the screen and Laura realizes exactly why the group is moving so oddly.

“Are those…”

“…ZOMBIES?” Danny finishes, taking a few steps backward.

Just then a group of Danny’s Summer Society girls come sprinting into view, brandishing every single kind of sports equipment imaginable. Tennis rackets, golf clubs, baseball bats, cricket bats, croquet mallets, and even a few billiard cues.

“DANNY! HELP!” One of the girls yells, gesturing wildly at Danny with a hockey stick. Danny turns back to her and starts to open her mouth but Laura beats her to it.

“Go. Go give them hell. I can handle myself, I’ll meet you back at your room?”

Danny pauses, scanning her face intently before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a key. She hands it to Laura and then squeezes her hand.

“Be careful, Supergirl.” Danny mumbles before leaning down and planting a quick, firm kiss on Laura’s forehead. Then she’s full-on sprinting towards the other Summer Society girls.

(Her forehead burns the entire walk back to Danny’s room.)

She watches Danny grab the tossed hockey stick out of the air and decapitate a close by zombie with ease. Grinning to herself, she turns and starts sprinting back across the park towards the Summer Society house. She manages to make it back to the house without any major catastrophe other than a few panicky freshman who almost bowl her over in attempt to get away from a stray zombie.

(She does, however, get to punch that zombie in the face.)

Once she arrives, the last remaining members of the Society are bolting out the door and after reminding her to lock the door and “don’t let anyone in who’s drooling” she finds herself climbing the stairs to Danny’s room in silence.

As soon as she enters Danny’s room, she’s overwhelmingly exhausted. After briefly considering calling Perry, she decides to lay down on Danny’s comfortable looking bed with all the mis-matched pillows. Just for a little while. The mere thought of Perry's inevitable meltdown on makes her more tired. She kicks off her shoes and climbs onto the bed, curling up around one of those pillows.

(The blue one with little white moose printed on it.)

It smells like Danny’s shampoo and she’s so content, she doesn't bother pulling the covers over herself. Besides, she was only going to lie down for a little while.

(She dreams of a sun-kissed meadow. Soft green grass everywhere, lined with tall pine trees that sway in the comfortable breeze. She’s lying on her back with Danny, watching huge puffy clouds float by. Danny points at one and tells her it looks like a duck. Laura points out another that looks like a heart. Danny rolls over on top of her, pinning her to the ground with a laugh. She’s leaning in, in in…)

Eyes fluttering open, Laura’s aware that there’s someone else in the room with her. But instead of feeling panicked like she supposes she should, she feels calmer. As her surroundings come back to her, she realizes it’s Danny.

Danny moves around the room silently for a few moments before approaching the bed slowly. Laura feels her gently climb into it with her, sliding as close to Laura’s body as she can get without actually touching her. Before she even realizes what she’s doing, Laura reaches back blindly until she touches Danny’s wrist. She grabs it and pulls Danny’s arm around her body. Danny re-settles around her.

“Do you need the blanket?” Danny whispers against the top of her head. Laura shakes her head no and grips Danny’s arm tighter.

Danny’s body is warmer than any blanket Laura has known. Danny gently tangles their fingers together and She can't help but smile. Soon, she feels Danny’s breathing start to even out and within moments, she’s drifting off as well.

(This time she doesn't remember what she dreams.)

Laura wakes up to her phone buzzing incessantly in her pocket.  She quickly and quietly untangles her arm from Danny’s and tugs the offending object out of her pocket. Her alarm. She has class in an hour. She groans inwardly. 

(For a brief moment she considers skipping it and just staying here with Danny, but she knows she wouldn't be able to enjoy the time without worrying about what she’s missing.)

She carefully untangles herself from Danny’s arms and slowly moves off the bed. She pauses for a moment, bending down to grab her shoes from the side of the bed, as she’s struck by the picture-esque image of Danny spread out on the bed in the sunrise.

Her bright red hair is fanned out on the green and white striped pillow. Her eyes are closed, barely detectable eyelashes fluttering slightly with whatever dream she’s having. Pale arms are spread out where Laura’s body was moments ago, and her shirt has risen up several inches, revealing her stomach that’s rising and falling gently with each breath.

Physically shaking herself to re-focus, Laura quickly grabs her shoes and puts them back on. She tip-toes to Danny’s door and with one last look at the sleeping other girl, leaves.

Hours later, sitting in her econ class, she gets a text from Danny that says “Next time you should wake me up so I can tell you goodbye. Or just stay.”

(She spends the rest of the day telling people her face is just sunburned.)


End file.
